Efforts put into popularising dental tourism is slowly but steadily yielding results in Ranchi. The number of patients taking up dental treatment as part of dental tourism is on a rise. The acceptance rate amongst patients makes Dental Clinics in the city optimistic about the concept.
"We have seen a whooping 60% rise in Foreign Patients visiting our clinic in the past one year" says Dr. Akash Prasad , chief Dental Surgeon at Ranchi's most reputed Dental Clinic, Smiles Central.
Foreign Nationals including from those of USA, Australia, Germany, France & Italy have been visiting Ranchi for their Dental treatments which costs fraction, compared to their own countries.
One tends to wonder if the tooth can be so important and if people would travel across countries to get their treatment done. People from the west do travel to get their dental treatment done in other parts of the word primarily because it saves 60 to 70% of their treatment costs. For example, a Root Canal Treatment which is done for $700 to $1500 can be done for Rs 3000 to Rs 4000 in India. Dental products like toothpastes which cost US$2 to US$2.5 costs around Rs 40 in India. In Europe it is the very long waiting period that encourages patients choose destinations outside Europe for dental treatment. A survey conducted in the UK said that 90 percentage of respondents wanted to go abroad for their dental treatment because they are cheaper outside. Also 17% wanted to take up treatment abroad citing long waiting period in UK. In South Asian and African countries it is the lack of infrastructure and technology that makes people come to India for dental treatment.